Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-11-24
WASHING TON LETTER.
From our regular correspondent.

upon the beautiful drive 10 the Sol
dlers' Home, is the historian Ban
croft. He is nearly ninety years Of
age, but can ride his horse as grace
fully as dashing Brigadler. Every
day he deyotes certain hours 10 la-
Dor on his exhausting history Of the
United States, and then mounts his
horse and with his valet few rods
in the rear, goes flying into the
country for recreation. There is
something remarkable in his person
al appearance. Tall and straight,
long white hair hanging to his
shoulders, thin face with full beard,
aud head covered with an ordinary
cloth cap with an unusually large
vizor. All take delight in doing
him honor, and point with pride to
the great literary achievements Of
the grand old American.
| never knew until the other day
how they tested concrete foundation,
and was greatly interested in the ex-
pertinent | witnessed at the new Con
gressional Library site. You know
that Is to be an immense structure,
and must have a good foundation.
They will use there ovor 10000 bar
rels of cement. The ground on
which the concrete is laid isrequired
to stand pressure of two and a
half tons to the square foot. Now
in making these test the process is
this: -Four short iron pillars are
placed on the ground about four feet
apart. These are exactly one foot
square at the bottom, and resting on
these are two iron rods about foot
in height, on which is flat car
loaded with thirty tons of pug lead,
and this weight being equally diyid-
ed between the four square feet
covered by the iron pillars, solves
the problem. Everything used in
this building will be subjected to
the severest test and when completed
will be the finest structure on this
continent, if not the wide world.
Several weeks ago | alluded to
the bitter feeling existing in the In
terror Department regarding Land
Commissioner Sparks and predicted
his resignation or dismissal. The
quarrel has reached the eliminating
point, and Secretary Lamar says in
n long letter that either himself or
Sparks must go. 1t Will be Sparks.
! The Post, the Administration organ
here, says: "He Is probably the most
unpopular official in the Government,
title which he has earned by strict
attention to the business of making
himself unpopular-which is just
what the Republicans have claimed.
His dismissal will rejoice thousands
of the honest land settlers of the
great west, who have been most
shamefully outraged by his unjust
decisions and unwise interference.
Let Sparks 90 back TO the shades, he
never should have been dug up
Congress sometimes makes the
most egregious blunders. Last win
ter they passed san act to restrict
the ownership of real estate In the
territories to American citizens"
and have just discovered that in the
body of the act the District of Col
umbia is also included. This will
preclude even foreign legations from
owning more real estate in Wash
ingtou, which certainly was never
intended unless 10y the crafty poiti-
elan VINO drew the bill. Several
/ Congressmen have been interviewed,
who express their entire ignorance
of such legislation until shown the
act, which or course will be speedily
amended. But then it shows how
careless even our law makers are.
The Department Of Agriculture
has gathered some very instructive
and suggestive statistics. There
was planted this year 73,ooo,ooo
acres of corn, which gave an aver
age yield Of twenty bushels to the
acre. The potato crop averages
ffty-four bushels to the acre, and